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eEditionEdition CHANCE OF SHOWERS 65 • 55 | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Public health emergency declared for OregonThe World
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ore-gon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer, Greg Walden, Kurt Schrader, and Suzanne Bonamici, announced Wednes-day that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has granted the delegation’s request for a public health emergency dec-laration for the state of Oregon.
The public health emergency comes as smoke from unprec-edented wildfires continues to blanket the state, and most of Oregon is suffering from hazard-ous air quality. Portland’s air has ranked worst in the world among large cities in recent days.
“Oregon was already facing one major public health emer-gency, with a once-in-a-century pandemic. Now, deadly fires and hazardous air are compounding the public health dangers our communities face,” said Merk-ley. “We need as much federal support and assistance as we can
get to weather this storm and help Oregonians stay healthy and safe during this double crisis. This declaration will help get housing supports to people in need, target response to families particularly vulnerable to this health emergency, and make sure our communities get through this disaster as safely as possible.”
“Oregonians choking on smoke and facing the massive challenge of unprecedented wildfires in the middle of a devastating pandem-ic fully realize the state faces a public health emergency,” Wyden said. “I know from the devasta-tion I saw throughout Oregon last weekend that while much work remains to be done for an overall response to this disaster, today’s announcement is both welcome and timely.”
“The hazardous air conditions in Oregon are threatening the health of Oregonians across the state, while the ongoing corona-virus pandemic has shut down indoor spaces that have been used for respite from wildfire smoke in years past,” DeFazio
said. “I’m grateful to HHS for their quick action in granting the Public Health Emergency request to give our state greater flexi-bility to address the healthcare needs of Oregonians during this difficult time.”
“I am thankful to Secretary Azar for rapidly approving the public health emergency related to the wildfires in Oregon. This quick approval means that we have the resources to continue to fight COVID-19 while also having the additional resources to respond to the devastating fires. I am grateful that Oregon is continuing to receive the support from the Trump Administration to begin the recovery in Southern Oregon,” said Rep. Walden.
“Oregon currently has the worst air quality in the entire world,” said Rep. Schrader. “Smoke from the West Coast fires has traveled to the East Coast and to parts of Europe. Even Oregonians who have not been displaced by the fires, are facing serious health conse-quences all while battling a glob-
al health pandemic. This much needed public health declaration will help get resources to those who need it most and help get supplies to Oregon hospitals.”
“Smoke is making it hazard-ous to breathe in Oregon — a threat that is severely compound-ed by the pandemic,” said Rep. Bonamici. “I’m concerned about the long-term effects of smoke inhalation and other health challenges for our vulnerable communities. I’m encouraged that the Department of Health and Human Services quickly granted our request so we can protect the health of Oregonians at this critical time.”
Merkley, Wyden, DeFazio, Blumenauer, Walden, Schrader and Bonamici had urged Secre-tary Azar on Monday to grant the declaration. In their request, the delegation noted that smoke can make individuals more suscep-tible to respiratory diseases — including the coronavirus — and that the pandemic had closed indoor locations that had been used to shelter Oregonians from
hazardous smoke in the past.With the Public Health Emer-
gency, among other resources, Oregon is receiving:
• An Incident Management Team (IMT) and regional emer-gency coordinators who will coordinate with state and local health authorities and emergency response officials, medical per-sonnel, and oversee equipment deployment in response to the state’s request;
• The activation of the Na-tional Disaster Medical System, which will provide technical assistance to state officials, and members from the Urban Search and Rescue Teams, the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, and the Victim Informa-tion Center; and
• Valuable data and tools to support counties’ emergency re-sponse, including the number of Medicare beneficiaries who rely on electricity dependent medical equipment—such as dialysis and home oxygen — to help antici-pate, plan for, and respond to the needs of at-risk populations.
New Marshfield Junior High School taking shape
John Gunther, The World
The exterior walls for the new Marshifeld Junior High School have been erected on the site of the former Harding Building and parking lot and the school remains on pace to be ready for the 2021-22 school year. See Saturday’s print edition of The World for an update on the progress.
Interest rates will remain near zero
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the economy still struggling to recover from the pandemic reces-sion, Federal Reserve policymak-ers signaled Wednesday that their benchmark short-term interest rate will likely remain at zero at least through 2023 and possibly even longer.
Fed chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference that while the economy has rebounded more quickly than expected, the job market is still hurting and the outlook is uncertain. The unem-ployment rate has fallen steadily since the spring but is still 8.4%.
“Although we welcome this progress we will not lose sight of the millions of Americans that remain out of work,” Powell said.
The Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at nearly zero, where it has been pegged since the virus pandemic intensified in March. The rate influences borrowing costs for homebuyers, credit card users, and businesses. Fed policymak-ers hope an extended period of low interest rates will encourage more borrowing and spending, though their policy also carries the risk of inflating a bubble in stocks or other financial assets.
Fed officials said in a set of quarterly economic projections that they expect to keep rates at zero through 2023. And in a statement released after its two-day meeting, the Fed said it wouldn’t raise borrowing costs until inflation has reached 2% and appears likely to “moder-ately exceed” that level for an extended period.
The Fed’s projections show that policymakers don’t expect inflation to hit that target until the end of 2023.
“The Fed is now more dovish, by a long shot, than it has ever been,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont. Dovish means keeping borrowing costs low to support more hiring.
On Wall Street, stocks initially got a short boost from the Fed’s actions before turning lower. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%. Still, some market analysts liked what they heard from the Fed.
“A better economy and a dov-ish Fed, that is a nice combo,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist for LPL Financial.
But many analysts were dis-appointed the Fed was not more
Please see Rates, Page 2
Free masks, gloves available to businessesThe World
SALEM — On Wednes-day, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced a new program to provide masks and gloves to small business in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Governor, in partnership with the Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board, allocated $10 million from the federal CARES Act funding for the purchase of protective supplies. The state of Oregon is fulfilling orders at no charge until resources are depleted.
“We want our businesses to be able to operate in the safest manner possible right now so that we can get out of this health
crisis, and get them back to full operations,” said Gov. Brown. “Our small businesses are the hardest hit, so we want to help them get the tools they need at no cost to them.”
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees that are head-quartered in Oregon with principal operations in Oregon are eligible. Business Oregon — the state’s economic de-velopment agency — and the Department of Administrative Services are collaborating to create the order and distribution process. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees will receive a box of 200 gloves and 100 masks, with larger businesses receiving up to 500 masks and
800 gloves. For now, businesses are limited to one order, with additional orders possible at a later date depending on avail-ability
In addition to the small busi-ness program, the Early Learning Division is providing supplies such as gloves, disinfecting wipes, masks and more to child care providers around the state as part of the effort. The Gover-nor set aside $1.3 million from the federal Governor’s Educa-tion Emergency Relief Fund to purchase supplies for this critical service. Child care providers have been operating under emer-gency conditions since March and are following increased safe-ty and health guidelines. Child
care providers approved by ELD to operate Emergency Child Care are eligible to order supplies and will need a license/provider num-ber to do so.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, child care providers have been doing critical work to support families and other businesses in Oregon,” said ELD Director Miriam Calderon, “These items will help providers continue operating with a focus on safety for children, parents and their staff.”
The order form is online and is now accepting orders. Business-es and child care providers can access the form here: https://sup-plyconnector.org/states/oregon/free-ppe.
Western wildfire smoke brings haze to East CoastAssociATed Press
The smoke from dozens of wildfires in the western United States is stretching clear across the country — and even pushing into Mexico, Canada and Europe. While the dangerous plumes are forcing people inside along the West Coast, residents thousands of miles away in the East are seeing unusually hazy skies and remarkable sunsets.
The wildfires racing across tinder-dry landscape in California,
Idaho, Oregon and Washington are extraordinary, but the long reach of their smoke isn’t unprecedented. While there are only small pockets in the southeastern U.S. that are haze free, experts say the smoke poses less of a health concern for those who are farther away.
The sun was transformed into a perfect orange orb as it set over New York City on Tuesday. Photographs of it sinking behind the skyline and glinting through tree leaves flooded social media. On Wednesday, New Jersey resi-
dents described a yellow tinge to the overcast skies, and weath-er forecasters were kept busy explaining the phenomenon and making predictions as to how long the conditions would last.
On the opposite coast, air quality conditions were among some of the worst ever record-ed. Smoke cloaked the Golden Gate Bridge and left Portland and Seattle in an ashy fog, as crews have exhausted themselves trying to keep the flames from consuming more homes and even
wider swaths of forest.Satellite images showed that
smoke from the wildfires has traveled almost 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) to Britain and other parts of northern Europe, scientists said Wednesday.
The current weather system, which favors a westerly wind across the higher levels of the atmosphere, is to blame for the reach of the smoke, experts explained.
Please see Smoke, Page 2
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“We always seem, at times, to get the right com-bination of enough smoke and the upper level jet stream to line up to bring that across the country, so we’re just seeing this again,” said Matt Solum with the National Weather Service’s regional opera-
tions center in Salt Lake City, Utah. “It’s definitely not the first time this has happened.”
There could be some easing of the haze this weekend as a storm system is expected to move into the Pacific Northwest and could affect the conditions that helped the smoke trav-el across the country. But Solum said there’s always a chance for more smoke and haze to shift around.
“Just due to all the wild-fires that are going on, this is likely going to continue for a while,” he said. “You might have ebbs and flows of that smoke just depend-ing on how the upper level winds set up.”
Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, said she woke up Wednesday to a red sunrise and more haze.
She said millions of peo-
ple who live beyond the flames can end up dealing with diminished air quality as it’s not uncommon for wildfire smoke to travel hundreds of miles.
Although the health impacts are reduced the farther and higher into the atmosphere the smoke travels, Knowlton and her colleagues said the resulting haze can exacerbate exist-ing problems like asthma and add to ozone pollution.
specific about how long it wanted inflation to stay above 2%, one likely rea-son that the stock market ultimately fell.
Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust, said the Fed will likely keep rates at nearly zero for at least five years. The Fed held its rate that low for seven years during and after the 2008-2009 recession.
The Fed ultimately first hiked rates in December 2015, when the unem-ployment rate was 5%. On Wednesday, the Fed projected that it will keep rates at zero in 2023 even as it forecasts unemploy-ment will fall to 4%.
Powell said the Fed’s benchmark rate will stay low “until the expansion is well along, really very close to our goals and even after.”
The Fed has significant-ly altered its inflation goal, from simply reaching to 2% to pushing inflation above that level so that it averages 2% over time. That is intended to offset
long periods of inflation below that level.
If businesses and con-sumers come to expect increasingly lower infla-tion, they act in ways that entrench slower price and wage gains, which can be a drag on economic growth.
Powell reiterated his support for more spend-ing by Congress to help the economy recover. Congress is deadlocked on more financial relief because of disagreements on the size of the package between Democrats and Republicans. Some earlier measures aimed at helping consumers, such as an ex-tra $600 in unemployment benefits, have expired.
“My sense is that more fiscal support is likely to be needed,” Powell said.
The Fed also said Wednesday that it will continue purchasing about $120 billion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities a month, in an effort to keep longer-term interest rates low. Since March, the Fed has flooded financial markets with cash by making such purchases and its balance sheet has ballooned by about $3 trillion.
SmokeFrom Page 1
Swollen rivers are concern in aftermath of Hurricane Sally
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Rivers swollen by Hurricane Sally’s rains threatened more misery for parts of the Florida Pan-handle and south Alabama on Thursday, as the storm’s remnants continued to dump heavy rains inland that spread the threat of flooding to Georgia and the Carolinas.
Coastal residents, mean-while, looked to begin the recovery from a storm that turned streets into rivers, ripped roofs off buildings, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and killed at least one person.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people in flooded areas that they would need to remain vigilant as water from the hurricane subsides, because heavy rains to the north were expected to cause flooding in Panhan-dle rivers in coming days.
“So this is kind of the initial salvo, but there is go-ing to be more that you’re going to have to contend with,” DeSantis said.
In southeastern Alabama, forecasters warned of river flooding in rural Coffee County, where the Pea River was expected to crest Friday at a near-record 12 feet above flood stage. An alert from the emergency manager in neighboring Pike County declared
heavy rains had rendered all the county’s roads and bridges impassable.
Flooding in central Georgia forced Robins Air Force Base south of Macon to close one of its entranc-es and delay the start of the workday for some employ-ees. Elsewhere in Georgia, sheriffs reported numerous trees down and some high-ways and streets closed because of high water.
At least one death was blamed on the hurricane. Or-ange Beach, Alabama, May-or Tony Kennon told The Associated Press one person in the popular vacation spot died and another was miss-ing as a result of the storm. He said he couldn’t immedi-ately release details.
Sally blew ashore near Gulf Shores, Alabama, on Wednesday morning as a hurricane with 105 mph winds. It moved slowly, exacerbating the rains’ effects. More than 2 feet fell near Naval Air Station Pensacola, and nearly 3 feet of water covered streets in downtown Pen-sacola, the National Weath-er Service reported.
“It was an unbeliev-ably freaky right turn of a storm that none of us ever expected,” Kennon said of Sally, which once appeared to have New Orleans in its sights. Instead, the storm struck Alabama in almost
the exact spot where Hurri-cane Ivan made landfall 16 years to the day earlier.
Sally ripped away a large section of a fishing pier at Alabama’s Gulf State Park on the day a ribbon-cutting had been scheduled following a $2.4 million renovation. In Pen-sacola, the storm tore loose a barge-mounted construc-tion crane that knocked out a section of the main bridge between Pensacola and Pensacola Beach.
Some Pensacola streets looked like rivers with whitecaps at times. The waters swamped parked cars before receding. At a down-town marina, at least 30 sailboats, fishing boats and cabin cruisers were clumped together Thursday in a mass of fiberglass hulls and broken docks. Some boats rested atop sunken ones.
The hurricane also drove two large ferry boats into a concrete sea wall and left them grounded. Both the Turtle Runner and the Pel-ican Perch were purchased with BP oil spill money and used for trips between the city and the beach.
A replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship the Nina was missing from where it was docked at the Pensac-ola waterfront, police said. The ship was later seen run aground in downtown Pen-sacola, Pensacola News
Journal reported.The storm was a
nerve-racking experience for University of West Florida student Brooke Shelter. She was wide awake Wednesday morn-ing as strong winds and rainfall battered her home, marking her first expe-rience with a hurricane. “The damage around my home is pretty minor, for which I am thankful for,” Shelter said. “However, it is so sad seeing how flood-ed downtown is.”
Sally weakened to a tropical depression late Wednesday and picked up speed. The National Hurri-cane Center said its center would move Thursday out of southeast Alabama and across central Georgia, reaching South Carolina on Thursday night.
On Thursday, the storm was dumping heavy rains over central and northern Georgia and western South Carolina. The National Weather Service said up to a 1 foot (30 centimeters) of rain could accumulate in parts of Georgia, where multiple flash food warn-ings were issued Thursday.
Forecasters said South Carolina could see isolated rainfall totals of 10 inches. Flooding was also possible in portions of North Caro-lina and Virginia through Friday.
North Bend to begin paving Chester Street next weekThe World
NORTH BEND — Beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 22, the City of North Bend’s contractor, Knife River Materials, will be closing Chester Street between New-mark and O’Connell streets to replace the pavement.
Temporary closures of this street segment, and including Tower Street at its intersection with Chester will occur. Initial work will include pavement removal and base replacement, with final paving anticipated
to start Sept. 28 and 29. Weather may affect the paving schedule.
Motorists are request-ed to utilize alternate routes as only residents and emergency traffic will have limited access through these sections of roadway between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the above listed weeks. Note that segments of the road will be rough until paving completes the project.
“The City of North Bend thanks you in ad-vance for your patience in this matter,” said a city spokesperson.
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DEAR ABBY: My husband is currently at a job that, at first, he complained was a “drag.” It later became a place he seemed to be OK working at.
A new male employee was hired -- a man who is on his second marriage -- and he became friendly with my husband. Over the last few months I have noticed my husband texting him quite often during his days off, including very late at night.
One day I confronted him after I checked his phone to see what they were texting and saw he had deleted some messages, even those he had shared with me as they were texting. He admitted that he had asked him about his first marriage and divorce since we were having some issues and said that’s why he deleted the messages.
When my husband starts drinking at home, he starts texting him, occasionally throughout the night until he goes to bed (it could be until 5 a.m.). He deletes all those messages so I can’t see them. What do you think is going on? Even on days he is off, he goes by his job to take care of something or help out. -- SUSPICIOUS IN TEXAS
DEAR SUSPICIOUS: What I think is going on is less important by far than what YOU think is going on. It appears your husband has found a kindred spirit in this new employee -- or something more. Dumping on his co-worker about problems in your marriage won’t lead to satisfactory conclusions.
The two of you need to resolve your issues -- including the fact that you no longer trust him -- by talking them through with a licensed marriage and family counselor. Please don’t wait until the situation deteriorates further to consult one.
DEAR ABBY: I was involved in a nearly fatal car accident some years ago. My problem is people are always telling me I should be over it by now, and there shouldn’t be any more complaints or pain at this late date.
Well, that one day changed
my life drastically. I’m still healing emotionally, not to mention there are lifelong injuries I will never be able to overcome. My back is in constant pain, and I can no longer lift anything. I also get daily horrific migraines. Because of that, I lost the best job I ever had, which has affected me more than anything.
People can be insensitive, patronizing and just plain rude if I mention any current issues regarding my condition. Most times I respond aggressively; at others, I try my best not to be offended by their lack of empathy. While I certainly don’t want or need pity, the fact that my near-death experience is shrugged off as just an “incident” bothers me greatly. What more can I do? Or should I just stay silent and count my blessings? -- SURVIVOR IN MISSOURI
DEAR SURVIVOR: There is nothing more you can do, other than politely refuse if you are asked to do something that’s now beyond your capacity. As you have discovered, responding aggressively is counterproductive.
Because these individuals have conveyed that they no longer want to hear about your accident, you may have to confide in a willing friend or a licensed therapist when you need to get things off your chest. The latter might be more satisfying than trying to talk to people who can no longer tolerate hearing about something they have no solution for.
-------------------------------Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van
Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
To order “How to Write Letters for All Occasions,” send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.
DEAR ABBYBy Abigail Van Buren
Deleted texts to new friend arouses wife’s suspicions
Oregon reports 195 new casesThe World
PORTLAND — COVID-19 has claimed two more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 521, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.
Oregon Health Author-ity also reported 195 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state total to 29,850.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following coun-ties: Benton (1), Clackamas (10), Clatsop (2), Coos (2), Deschutes (4), Douglas (2), Hood River (1), Jackson
(15), Jefferson (5), Klam-ath (14), Lane (15), Linn (1), Malheur (17), Marion (23), Multnomah (32), Polk (3), Umatilla (2), Union (1), Wallowa (6), Wasco (2), Washington (33) and Yamhill (4).
Oregon’s 520th COVID-19 death is a 70-year-old man in Wash-ington County who tested positive on July 9 and died on Sept. 8 at OHSU. He did not have underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 521st COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Aug. 4 and died on Sept. 10 at his residence. He had underly-
ing conditions.OHA announces new
COVID-19 wastewater monitoring project
OHA today announced it had launched a statewide COVID-19 wastewater monitoring project to study the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in more than 40 small- to medium-sized communities around the state. The project, which will include weekly waste-water testing over the next 30 months, will enable epidemiologists to better understand the circulation of COVID-19 in some of Oregon’s communities. It will serve as an “early warning” system to tell if COVID-19 is spreading
silently in communities.“This program holds
promise to help us monitor COVID-19 in our com-munities,” said Melissa Sutton MD, MPH, Medical Director for Respiratory Viral Pathogens at OHA and a principal investigator for the wastewater study. “We look forward to our partnership with local com-munities and researchers. Together we hope to better understand the spread of COVID-19 in Oregon.”
Much of the work will be carried out by Oregon State University research-ers, along with local partners. Funding for this program comes from the CDC.
Overall, cases continue to deline in stateThe World
PORTLAND — Oregon Health Authority’s Weekly COVID-19 Report on Wednesday showed that new cases in Oregon have continued to decline as 1,294 cases were recorded from Sept. 7-13 — down 12% from last week’s tally of 1,477.
In that same period, the number of Oregonians newly tested declined 35%, to 17,365, and the per-centage of tests that were positive rose from 4.3% to 5.6%. This decline in the number of Oregonians tested occurred during the context of numerous active wildfires. OHA is closely monitoring this situation.
Twenty-nine Oregonians were reported to have died
last week in association with COVID-19, compared to 23 last week. Eighty-three Oregonians were hospitalized; and with 47 in the previous week, the reported number of Ore-gonians hospitalized with COVID-19 is the lowest for any two-week period since mid-June.
As in past weeks of de-clining case counts, OHA reminds Oregonians that it remains very import-ant to continue to wear face coverings, practice physical distancing and avoid gatherings to sustain the progress the state has made.
Oregon joins Western States Pact in testing expo-sure notification technol-ogy
Governor Kate Brown
announced today that Oregon has joined with Western States Pact members California, Washington, Colorado and Nevada in a pilot project to test COVID-19 exposure notification technology. The pilot project will test the Exposure Notification Express mobile applica-tion developed by Google and Apple. For those who voluntarily choose to use the exposure notifica-tion technology, the app confidentially notifies individuals who may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. Privacy and security are central to the design of the technology, which does not collect location data from any device and never shares user identities.
Users must opt in to the technology.
“Knowledge is power when it comes to stopping the spread of COVID-19, and this pilot project will help people make in-formed decisions to keep themselves healthy, while still protecting individual privacy,” said Governor Brown. “COVID-19 knows no state borders, and my goal is to make sure, if more widely im-plemented, this exposure notification technology is made available to those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this disease — Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander and Tribal communities, as well as those living in the rural parts of our states.”
Stolen tools recovered by Coos Bay PoliceThe World
COOS BAY — About $10,000 worth of stolen construction equipment from the Coos Bay Village proj-ect has been recovered, according to a release from the Coos Bay Police Department.
Police received reports of the stolen tools and other equip-ment Tuesday, and an investigation led to a description of a suspect’s vehicle, the release said. Some of the tools had been stashed in bushes near the construction site.
Officers later located
the suspect’s vehicle, and confirmed the op-erator’s identity. Nearly all of the tools were re-covered with the assis-tance of the Reedsport Police Department and Oregon State Police, the release said.
Jesse Nelson, 29, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree theft, second-degree crimi-nal mischief, unlawful possession of metham-phetamine and provid-ing false information to a police officer. Nelson was transported to the Reedsport Police Department and lodged at its jail on outstanding warrants.
Governor convenes first racial justice councilThe World
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown convened the first meeting of the Racial Justice Council to address systemic racism in Oregon. In response to Oregonians’ clarion call for racial jus-tice, police accountability, and the recognition that Black Lives Matter, Gov. Brown formed the council to take action in advanc-ing anti-racist policies for Oregon.
“This week, as we brace for the impacts of a once-in-a-lifetime wild-fire season, we are amidst a global pandemic that has sickened and killed Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Pacific Islander and other communities of color at disproportionate rates,” said Governor Kate
Brown. “Racism and racial disparities impact every part of our culture and our economy. The pandemic and the fires have further exacerbated these dispar-ities. We know that most Oregonians are feeling the impacts of wind, fires, and the pandemic, but the ef-fects are not felt equally.”
Gov. Brown went on to recognize the contributions and advocacy of members of the council, as well as thousands of Oregonians who have raised their voices in pursuit of racial justice and criminal justice reform following the mur-der of George Floyd.
“In honor of the memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and too many oth-ers, we must center racial equity as we build the state budget and develop our
2021 legislative agenda,” Gov. Brown added. “As we recruit and promote people in state agencies. And our boards and commissions. In the very structures of state government.”
“Today, we embark on a process to build an Oregon that we can all love. An Oregon where we can all be loved and respected. As we reshape our state budget, we must support the communities currently experiencing crisis. We must ensure a better future, by focusing necessary recovery measures around racial equity and inclu-sion.”
The council is an advi-sory group to the Governor with subgroups focused on criminal justice reform and police accountability, health equity, economic
opportunity, housing and homelessness, environ-mental equity and edu-cation. The council will provide principles and rec-ommendations that center racial justice and economic recovery to the Governor to inform the 2021-2023 Governor’s Recommend-ed Budget and legislative agenda.
Men charged with poaching crabs near Cannon Beach
ASTORIA (AP) — Two men are accused of poach-ing crab in the protected Cape Falcon Marine Reserve south of Cannon Beach using gear stolen from other crabbers.
Scott Giles, most re-cently of Ilwaco, Washing-ton, and deckhand Travis Westerlund, of Astoria, face criminal charges including theft, criminal mischief, unlawful take and fishing in a prohibited area, following an indictment in August.
Given the alleged amount of stolen gear found in his possession, Giles, captain of the commercial fishing vessel The Baranof, faces felony theft charges.
A researcher with Ore-gon State University and a commercial crabber dis-covered a string of 19 pots hidden in the reserve area in April 2019. The pots were marked with a variety of paint colors, leading investigators to conclude they had been stolen from other crabbers.
The pots were tracked to seven commercial crabbers between Astoria and New-
port, authorities said.More pots were also
discovered when someone ran over a line attached to two strings of crab pots, authorities said.
Investigators with the Oregon State Police’s fish and wildlife division marked the legal-sized crab they found in those pots and lowered the gear back in place. Then trooper Jim O’Connor waited at a local processing plant to see if anyone delivered the crab.
The marked crab hours later was delivered by The Baranof, authorities said. Investigators served search warrants before arresting Giles and Westerlund this summer. Both men have since been released as the cases proceed.
It wasn’t immediately known if the men have lawyers to comment on their cases.
The Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, located offshore from Oswald West State Park in Tillamook County, was established in 2016 with harvest restrictions beginning the same year.
COVID-19 continues to be the driving force for joblessness
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to 860,000, a historically high number of people that illustrates the broad economic damage still taking place nine months after the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S.
The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. jobless claims fell by 33,000 form the previous week and that 12.6 million are collecting traditional unemployment benefits, compared with just 1.7 million a year ago.
The pandemic has delivered a colossal shock to the economy. Until the pandemic upended the operations of American companies, from factories to family diners, weekly jobless aid applications had never exceeded 700,000 in the U.S. They’ve topped 700,000 for 26 consecutive weeks.
The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, col-lapsed at an annual rate of 31.7% from April through June, by far the worst three months on record, as mil-
lions of jobs disappeared.The economy and job
market have recovered somewhat from the initial shock. Employers added 10.6 million jobs from May through August, but that’s still less than half the jobs lost in March and April.
The recovery remains fragile, imperiled by continuing COVID-19 in-fections as schools begin to reopen, and the failure to deliver another economic rescue package in Wash-ington. And companies continue to lay off workers as they absorb sales lost to the pandemic.
Raytheon Technologies Corp. this week said it plans to slash more than 15,000 jobs this year at its corporate offices, at jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney and at its aviation and military equipment manufacturer Collins Aero-space.
A sharp drop in travel has left the airlines with tens of thousands more employees than they need to operate the vastly reduced number of flights. This spring, the airlines began receiving $25 billion in federal grants and loans
to keep workers on their payrolls for six months. With that money ending Sept. 30, the three biggest U.S. carriers are expected to furlough or lay off about 40,000 workers starting Oct. 1.
An extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits ran out July 31, squeez-ing households that had depended on the beefed-up payments. President Don-ald Trump issued an execu-tive order Aug. 8 providing a scaled-back version of the expanded jobless aid. Most states signed up for federal grants that let them increase weekly benefits by $300 or $400.
That program is expir-ing.
“Layoffs remain wide-spread and a historically high number of individuals are still receiving some type of jobless benefits,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Ox-ford Economics, wrote in a resarch report. “Failure on the part of policymakers to enact another fiscal relief package poses significant downside risks to the econ-omy and labor market as the recovery appears to be losing momentum.’’
eEditionEditionBarr pushes for federal charges in protests
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a private call with federal prosecu-tors across the country, Attorney General William Barr’s mes-sage was clear: aggressively go after demonstrators who cause violence.
Barr pushed his U.S. attorneys to bring federal charges whenev-er they could, keeping a grip on cases even if a defendant could be tried instead in state court, ac-cording to officials with knowl-edge of last week’s call who were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. Federal convictions often result in longer prison sentences.
The Trump administration’s crackdown has already led to more than 300 arrests on federal crimes in the protests since the death of George Floyd. An AP analysis of the data shows that while many people are accused of violent crimes such as arson for hurling Molotov cocktails and burning police cars and assault for injuring law enforce-ment, others are not. That’s led to criticism that at least some arrests are a politically motivated effort to stymie demonstrations.
“The speed at which this whole thing was moved from state court to federal court is stunning and unbelievable,” said Charles Sunwabe, who rep-resents an Erie, Pennsylvania, man accused of lighting a fire at a coffee shop after a May 30 protest. “It’s an attempt to intim-idate these demonstrators and to silence them,” he said.
Some cases are viewed as trumped up and should not be in federal court, lawyers say, including a teenager accused of civil disorder for claiming online “we are not each other’s enemy, only enemy is 12,” a reference to
law enforcement.The administration has seized
on the demonstrations and an aggressive federal response to showcase what President Donald Trump says is his law-and-order prowess, claiming he is counter-ing rising crime in cities run by Democrats. Trump has derided protesters and played up the vio-lence around protests, though the majority of them are peaceful.
Pockets of violence have indeed popped up in cities, including Portland, Oregon, where protests devolved into clashes with law enforcement for weeks on end. Nights of looting and other unrest have occurred elsewhere: Rochester, New York; Minneapolis, Louisville, Wash-ington, D.C., and Chicago.
Federal officials were called into to Kenosha, Wisconsin, after large protests and unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake and the gunning down of two protesters and later arrest of a 17-year-old in their deaths. No-tably, that teenager has not been charged with any federal crimes. Neither was a man accused of shooting and killing a demonstra-tor in Louisville following the death of Breonna Taylor.
While Barr has gone after pro-test-related violence targeted at law enforcement, he has argued there is seldom a reason to open sweeping investigations into the practices of police departments. The Justice Department, how-ever, has initiated a number of civil rights investigations into individual cases. Barr has said he does not believe there is systemic racism in police departments, even though Black people are disproportionately more likely to be killed by police, and public attitudes over police reforms have shifted.
During the call with U.S. attorneys, Barr raised the prospect that prosecutors could bring a number of other potential charges in unrest cases, including the rarely used sedition statute, according to the officials familiar with the call. Legal experts cautioned the use of that statute is unlikely, given its difficulty to prove in court.
Federal involvement in local cases is nothing new. Officials across the country have turned to the Justice Department for decades, particularly for violent crime and gang cases where offenders could face much stiffer federal penalties and there is no parole.
Police chiefs in several cities have pointed to the importance of their relationships with federal prosecutors to bring charges that can result in long prison sentenc-es to drive down violent crime.
Even before the unrest earlier this year, the Justice Department was stepping in to bring charges in states where the government believes justice is not being fully pursued by local prosecutors. In January, for example, the depart-ment brought federal hate crime charges against a woman accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women in one of several apparently anti-Semitic attacks reported throughout New York during Hanukkah.
It is not clear whether pro-test-related arrests will continue apace. Demonstrations have slowed, though not necessarily because of the federal charges. Wildfires in the West and hurri-canes in the South have lessened some of the conflict.
While many local prosecu-tors have dismissed dozens of low-level protest arrests, some are still coming down hard. A Pennsylvania judge set bail at $1
million for about a dozen people in a protest that followed the death of a knife-wielding man by police.
Even some Democrats, includ-ing District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, have called for the Justice Department to pursue federal charges against violent demonstrators, going as far as accusing the administration of declining to prosecute rioters. Washington’s Metropolitan Po-lice Department had arrested 42 people one August weekend after a protest left a trail of vandalism. But prosecutors said the arrest paperwork did not identify spe-cific crimes tied to each suspect.
The federal confrontation with Bowser seemed counterintuitive, though Trump has a history of squaring off against the mayor.
About one-third of the fed-eral protest-related cases are in Portland, for crimes such as assaulting a deputy U.S. marshal with a baseball bat, setting fires and setting off explosives at the federal courthouse and throwing rocks at officers.
Three purported “Boogaloo” members, who use the loose movement’s name as a slang term for a second civil war or collapse of civilization, were charged with possessing a home-made bomb and inciting a riot in Las Vegas.
An El Paso, Texas, man was accused of promoting hate speech, posting a video online with a racist epithet and making threatening comments to Black Lives Matter protesters while holding a military-style rifle at his feet. A Minnesota man was accused of helping burn down a police precinct headquarters there after Floyd’s death.
But other cases simply do not belong in federal court, lawyers
say.In Seattle, 35-year-old Isaiah
Willoughby, who’s accused of setting fire to the outside of a po-lice precinct, faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison if convicted of arson in federal court. He could be looking at about a year behind bars in state court, where his lawyer said the case belongs.
“This is city property that has been destroyed and you have a local prosecutors office that is ready and willing and able to charge these cases in state court, but the federal government is attempting to emphasize these protest-related crimes for what-ever agenda they are seeking to pursue,” said assistant federal public defender Dennis Carroll.
Carroll accused federal au-thorities of using the cases to try to make the protests seem more violent and disruptive than they really were.
Federal prosecutors this month agreed to dismiss the charge against a man who authorities said was found with a Molotov cocktail in his backpack after he and other protesters were arrest-ed in May for blocking traffic in Jacksonville, Florida. Video showed that 27-year-old Ivan Zecher was wrongfully arrested because he was actually on the sidewalk — not in the street — meaning prosecutors could not pursue their case, Zecher’s attor-ney, Marcus Barnett said.
“There is absolutely an agenda here to blow these out of pro-portion, make these look more serious or more sinister than it is,” Barnett said of the pursuit of federal charges. “This is the Justice Department, from the top, furthering an agenda that has nothing to do with justice,” he said.
Federal health official takes leave of absence
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Trump health appointee is taking a leave of absence after allegations of political interference in the federal coronavirus response, followed by a personal video that warned of election violence and all but equated science with resistance.
Michael Caputo has decided to take 60 days “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a state-ment.
Fiercely loyal to President Donald Trump, Caputo had been serving as the department’s top spokesman, a post that usually is not overtly political. He was installed by the White House in April during a period of tense relations with the president’s health secre-tary, Alex Azar.
Caputo, who has no health care background, was the subject of news reports last weekend that he tried to gain editorial control over a scientific weekly published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was followed by reports about a video he hosted on his Facebook page in which he likened government scientists to a “resistance” against Trump and warned that shooting would break out if Trump won the election and Democrat Joe Biden refused to concede.
Caputo’s declarations came as Azar and other top health care officials are trying to convince skeptical Americans that science will have the final say in the approval of coronavirus vaccines. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., had called for his resignation; Repub-lican senators remained publicly silent.
Leaving the depart-ment is Paul Alexander, who was brought in as a policy advisor to Caputo on a temporary basis, the department’s statement said.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who leads a spe-cial panel overseeing the government’s COVID-19 response, called the shakeup at HHS “an im-portant first step.” None-theless, Clyburn said he has started an investiga-tion into Caputo’s alleged effort to interfere with the CDC publication.
Caputo’s short tenure was marked by devo-tion to Trump, disdain for Democrats and the media, along with some scientists, as well as hints that he felt personally hounded by political enemies.
In an taxpayer-funded HHS podcast July 31, he spoke of having “a target on my back.” Caputo also accused Democrats in the government, along with the news media, of not wanting a vaccine so as to punish the president.
Caputo had once joked that “everything I learned about health care I learned from the Obamacare website,” and that “I’m science-stunt-ed.”
His resume has taken him through Trump’s turbulent world in recent years, and he displayed a political operator’s in-stinct to trade punches.
An Army veteran with a background in media, Caputo played a leading role in Trump’s 2016 New York state Republi-can primary victory and later moved over to the national campaign.
He has described him-self as having a fraternal relationship with political operative Roger Stone, the longtime Trump ally whose 40-month sentence for witness tampering, false statements and ob-structing a congressional investigation into Russian election interference was commuted by the president.
Stone is “like my big brother,” Caputo told the House Intelligence Com-mittee in 2017. “We’re very different, but I love him very much.” He said he would talk to Stone every day.
MEDFORD (AP) — Grants Pass police shot a man Wednesday who was in critical condition at a hospital, authorities said.
The Grants Pass Depart-ment of Public Safety said several of its officers fired at Jonny James Wednesday morning.
Police responded to a home that was under con-struction where James had challenged a man, resulting in a scuffle, police said.
James then fled into a nearby yard and made statements about harming himself while trying to stab himself with a gardening
tool, according to police. According to police, despite officers’ attempts to deescalate the situation, three officers fired their weapons at James as he “rushed” them with the garden tool. Another officer shot what police described as less lethal bean bag
rounds at him, police said.Police said the officers
then went to his aid and James was taken to a hospital. Police said he appeared to be holding a weeder tool at the time.
News outlets report the Josephine County Major Crimes team is investigating.
Grants Pass police shoot man after scuffle Wednesday
Barr takes aim at Justice Department prosecutorsWASHINGTON (AP)
— Attorney General William Barr took aim at his own Justice Depart-ment on Wednesday night, criticizing prosecutors for behaving as “headhunters” in their pursuit of promi-nent targets and for using the weight of the criminal justice system to launch what he said were “ill-con-ceived” political probes.
The comments at a speech at Hillsdale College in Mich-igan amounted to a striking, and unusual, rebuke of the thousands of prosecutors who do the daily work of assem-bling criminal cases across the country. Barr has faced scrutiny for overruling the decisions of Justice Depart-ment prosecutors who work for him, including in criminal cases involving associates of President Donald Trump.
Rejecting the notion that prosecutors should have final say in cases that they
bring, Barr described them instead as part of the “per-manent bureaucracy” and suggested they need to be supervised, and even reined in, by politically appointed leaders accountable to the president and Congress.
“The men and women who have ultimate author-ity in the Justice Depart-ment are thus the ones on whom our elected officials have conferred that respon-sibility — by presidential appointment and Senate confirmation,” Barr said, according to his prepared remarks. “That blessing by the two political branches of government gives these officials democratic legit-imacy that career officials simply do not possess.”
Barr himself has been aggressive as attorney general in pursuing certain categories of prosecutions, including using federal statutes to charge defen-
dants in the unrest that roiled cities after the death of George Floyd. But he warned that prosecutors can become overly attached to their cases in ways that lose perspective and judgment, listing a series of prosecutions — including under prior administrations — in which he said he be-lieved the government had taken extreme positions.
“Individual prosecutors can sometimes become headhunters, consumed with taking down their target,” Barr said. “Subject-ing their decisions to review by detached supervisors ensures the involvement of dispassionate decision-mak-ers in the process.”
Barr’s comments ap-peared to be a thinly veiled reference to the fracas that arose ahead of the February sentencing of Trump con-fidant Roger Stone. In that case, Barr overruled the
sentencing recommenda-tion of the line prosecutors in favor of a lighter punish-ment. The move prompted the entire trial team to quit before Stone’s sentencing hearing. Barr has defended his intervention as in the interests of justice.
In May, he sought the dismissal of the criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to lying to the FBI. Barr’s request is tied up in a court fight.
Though Barr was accused of undue inter-vention on behalf of the president’s associates, he bristled in his speech Wednesday night at the idea that it was even possi-ble for an attorney general to meddle in the affairs of a department that he leads.
Feds ponder charging Portland officialsWASHINGTON (AP)
— The Justice Department explored whether it could pursue either criminal or civil rights charges against city officials in Portland, Oregon after clashes erupted there night after night between law enforce-ment and demonstrators, a department spokesperson said Thursday.
The revelation that federal officials researched whether they could levy criminal or civil charges against the officials — ex-ploring whether their rhet-oric and actions may have helped spur the violence in Portland — underscores the larger Trump administra-tion’s effort to spotlight and crack down on protest-re-lated violence. The majority of the mass police reform demonstrations nationwide
have been peaceful.For many nights, federal
officials were told that Portland police officers were explicitly told not to respond to the federal courthouse as hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside, some throwing bricks, rocks and other projectiles at officers, and not to assist federal officers who were sent to try to quell the unrest.
The department had done research on wheth-er it could pursue the charges, spokesperson Kerri Kupec said. She declined to comment on the status or whether charges would be brought. But bringing criminal civil rights charges against city officials for protest-related violence would likely pres-ent an uphill court battle
for federal prosecutors.Justice Department offi-
cials disputed news reports that Attorney General Wil-liam Barr told prosecutors in the department’s civil rights division to explore whether they could bring charges against Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan for allowing some residents to establish a protest zone this summer.
President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats, and specifically pointed to Portland’s mayor Ted Wheeler, who he says have not done enough to stop nights of looting and unrest in cities across the U.S. Trump has called Wheeler a “wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor” and has said the city “will never recover with a fool for a Mayor....”
Trump has heaped blame for the unrest on Democrats who are leading the cities where violence has occurred and tried to keep focus squarely on pockets of protest-related violence, instead of on the point of police reform and the larger movement of racial injustice.
More than 100 people have been arrested in Portland on federal charges related to the unrest in the last few months. The FBI has said it was also shifting the agency’s resources to focus more heavily on violence and federal crimes committed during nearly three months of unrest during nightly racial injustice protests in the city that often end in vandal-ism, clashes with police and dozens of arrests.
Pac-12 football remains in holding patternJOHN MARSHALLAssociated Press
The Pac-12 took a significant step toward joining the Big Ten in playing football in the fall, getting clearance to hold full-fledged practices from the states of California and Oregon.
Early Wednesday, the Big Ten grabbed headlines by changing course and agreeing to set an an eight-game football schedule that would start the weekend of Oct. 24.
The Pac-12 also has econsid-ered starting its football season this fall, but it has more hurdles to clear. Half of its schools have been unable to ramp up prepa-ration for the season because of restrictions put in place by state and local authorities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Later Wednesday, the Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced a breakthrough with the California and Oregon
governors that was helped along by the conference’s plans to soon begin testing athletes daily for the virus.
“The Pac-12 welcomes today’s statements by Governor Newsom of California and Governor Brown of Oregon that state public health officials will allow for contact practice and return to competi-tion, and that there are no state restrictions on our ability to play sports in light of our adherence to strict health and safety protocols and stringent testing requirements, including our recently announced partnership with Quidel which will enable daily rapid results testing,” Scott said.
He added: “Our California and Oregon universities will now each individually and immedi-ately reach out to their relevant county public health officials to seek clarification on what is required to achieve the same clearance to resume contact prac-
tice and competition.”Earlier this month, the Pac-
12 announced a partnership that would give the conference’s schools the capacity to perform daily, rapid COVID-19 tests on athletes. Scott has called the testing a “game-changer” and it certainly proved to be so in the Big Ten. That league’s university pres-idents unanimously voted to return to competition in all fall sports and said their schools will begin daily antigen testing on Sept. 30.
The Pac-12 CEO Group is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the conference’s options. Because of the restrictions, it might take the teams that had been limited, including con-ference favorites Oregon and Southern California, more than a month to be ready to play. An Oct. 24 start, lined up with the Big Ten, could be challenging.
California Gov. Gavin New-som and Scott spoke Wednesday.
While there was some confusion about how the state’s rule limit-ing athletic activities to groups of no more than 12 could allow for football practice, ultimately things landed in a good place for the conference.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s spokesman said the two Pac-12 schools in that state met with the the Oregon Health Author-ity on Wednesday to discuss COVID-19 heath and safety plans for football and ask for a exemption to current sports guid-ance. An exemption has already be given to Oregon professional sports teams.
“We have granted that request, and, under the new guidance, OHA must receive written plans for approval,” Charles Boyle said in a statement.
Boyle said no plans had been received yet from the Pac-12.
“We want Oregon and Oregon State players to be able to focus
on football while protecting their health and safety,” Boyle said. “We also want to ensure that team practices will not be de-railed by a COVID-19 outbreak that would threaten the health not only of the players and coaches, but of their university communi-ties and the wide communities of Eugene and Corvallis.”
The Big Ten and Pac-12 decided Aug. 11 to postpone all fall sports until January due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Football in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12 start-ed last week, with the Southeast-ern Conference set to kick off its season on Sept. 26.
President Donald Trump pushed for the Big Ten to get back to football and had a similar sentiment for the Pac-12.
“I want to recommend Pac-12, you’re the only one now,” Trump said. “Open up, open up Pac-12.”
Pro Picks: Battle of Ohio fizzlesBARRY WILNERAssociated Press
With Ohio State, Ohio, Akron, Toledo, Kent State, Bowling Green and Miami of Ohio idle because of the coronavirus pan-demic, that leaves football fans in the Buckeye State with Thurs-day night’s Bengals-Browns game.
Sorry, folks — Pro Picks prob-ably will be watching Island-ers-Lightning instead.
At least this matchup is in Week 2, before Cincinnati and Cleveland are deeply dredging the bottom of the standings. Actually, the Bengals with top overall draft pick Joe Burrow at quarterback, were the better team in their opener before falling to the Chargers. Let’s forget about the Browns in their debut at Baltimore.
That’s almost what they have done.
“It is a short week, so we are kind of flushing it and moving on,” receiver Odell Beckham Jr. says of Cleveland being routed by Baltimore. “Did not necessar-ily get to watch the film as much as a group as we probably would have liked to, but we have a an-other big division game coming up. You kind of have to flush it, move on and call it a mulligan, whatever you want to call it, and just keep pushing.”
Cincinnati, ranked 28th in the AP Pro32, is a 5 1/2-point under-
dog at No. 31 Cleveland. We’ll go with the Buckeyes, uh, the ... BROWNS, 24-17
After riding the Bills in an easy win against the Jets, Pro Picks looks to remain in the knockout pool by taking GREEN BAY.
Washington (plus 6 1-2) at Arizona: Washington heads west after an inspirational comeback victory. It will head home with its first loss … BEST BET, CAR-DINALS 26-15
Minnesota (plus 3) at Indi-anapolis: We don’t believe the Vikings are as mediocre as they looked against Green Bay … UPSET SPECIAL, VIKINGS, 21-19
New Orleans (minus 6) at Las Vegas, Monday night: Imagine the scene for the Raiders’ first home game in the desert? Well, imagining is all we can do … SAINTS, 28-27
New England (plus 4 1-2) at Seattle: Many pundits loved what they saw from both teams last Sunday. More to love … SEA-HAWKS, 23-20
Kansas City (minus 8 1-2) at Los Angeles Chargers: A lot of points to give on the road. But the Chiefs score A LOT of points anywhere … CHIEFS, 36-20
Jacksonville (plus 10) at Tennessee: This is as high as the Jaguars are likely to get in the AP Pro32. Reality hits in Music City … TITANS, 20-13
Baltimore (minus 6 1-2) at
Houston: Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson. Excitement by the bushel … RAVENS, 30-20
Denver (plus 6) at Pittsburgh: Two bruised clubs coming off Monday nighters … STEELERS, 20-10
Los Angeles Rams (pick-em) at Philadelphia: Speaking of battered teams, the beleaguered Eagles again can’t avoid the injured list … RAMS, 23-19
Carolina (plus 8) at Tampa Bay: My goodness, how the opening loss soured the Gulf waters in Tampa-St. Pete … BUCCANEERS, 26-17
Atlanta (plus 5) at Dallas: These Cowboys looked very sim-ilar to the 2019 version at LA. That’s not a good thing … COW-BOYS, 31-21
San Francisco (minus 7) at New York Jets: Yes, the Jets looked that bad at Buffalo, They should be glad the Meadowlands will be empty … 49ERS, 27-9
Buffalo (minus 5 1-2) at Miami: The Bills get another opponent they should run over. A funny feeling says not quite … BILLS, 23-21
Detroit (plus 5 1-2) at Green Bay: No Lambeau Leaps for the Pack, although it really doesn’t matter with no fans in the stands … PACKERS, 30-19
New York Giants (plus 6) at Chicago: Two of the origi-nal franchises three days after the NFL’s 100th birthday … BEARS, 17-16.
LeBron named to All-NBA team for record 16th time
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — LeBron James now stands alone in All-NBA recognition history, getting there unanimously.
James was revealed Wednesday as an All-NBA player for a record 16th time, breaking the mark he shared with Kareem Abdul-Jab-bar, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. He was a first-team pick on all 100 ballots, joining Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo as the only unanimous first-team selec-tions this season.
Joining them on the first team: Houston guard James Harden, Lakers forward Anthony Davis and Dallas guard Luka Doncic, who got the nod in just his second season in the NBA — be-coming the first player to get there in either his first or second season since Duncan did for San Antonio. Duncan was first-team in each of his first eight NBA seasons, starting in 1997-98 and go-ing through 2004-05.
The 21-year-old Doncic is the sixth player to make All-NBA at that age or younger, joining Kevin Durant, James, Duncan, Rick Barry and Max Zaslofsky.
James is a first-team pick for the 13th time in his career, extending his record there. Bryant and Karl Malone were 11-time first-teamers. Antetokoun-mpo, the reigning MVP and the frontrunner to win the award again this season, was picked unanimously for the second consecutive year.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, Denver center Nikola Jokic, Portland guard Damian Lil-lard, Oklahoma City guard Chris Paul and Toronto forward Pascal Siakam were on the second team.
The third-team picks were Boston forward Jayson Tatum, Miami forward Jim-my Butler, Utah center Rudy Gobert, Philadelphia guard Ben Simmons and Houston guard Russell Westbrook.
Paul and Westbrook are now nine-time All-NBA players, Harden a six-time choice, Lillard is a five-timer and Antetokounmpo, Leon-ard and Davis are four-time selections. Butler and Gobert are three-time selections, Jokic a two-time choice and Siakam, Tatum and Simmons all joined Doncic as being on the team for the first time.
Harden and Doncic appeared on all 100 ballots — though only James and Antetokounmpo were unan-imous as first-team choices on every ballot. Davis and Jokic were on 99 ballots, and Leonard appeared on 98.
The voting was conduct-ed based on regular-season games played through March 11, and voters had to choose two guards, two forwards and one center for each team. Milwaukee forward Khris Middleton did not make All-NBA even though he appeared on more ballots (60) than Simmons (43) and Westbrook (38); they made the team as guards. Phila-delphia’s Joel Embiid got 39 votes and did not make the team either, after finishing fourth among centers.
Middleton led forwards who didn’t make the team in votes, Embiid did the same for centers and Washington’s Bradley Beal (26 votes) did the same for guards. Beal posted the 24th season in NBA history where someone finished with averages of at least 30 points and six assists — and became the first of those 24 to not make an All-NBA team.
Earthquakes score late to tie Timbers 1-1 in San Jose
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Valeri Qazaishvili scored in the 76th minute and the San Jose Earthquakes tied the Portland Timbers 1-1 on Wednesday night.
San Jose (2-4-5) will host Portland (4-4-3) again Saturday night.
Qazaishvili connected with Chris Wondolowski on a give-and-go and Qazaishvili dribbled around goalkeeper Steve Clark to tap it in.
Clark had a diving save in Wondolowski’s header in the 89th for his fifth denial. San Jose
goalkeeper James Marcinkowski made his first start since 2018, and had two saves.
Yimmi Chará gave Portland the lead in the 33rd on an assist from brother Diego, becoming the sixth pair of brothers in MLS history to connect on a goal. The Timbers allowed their 10th goal of the season in the final 15 minutes of a match.
Players from both teams stood at midfield before the match with a “Stay Strong California + Oregon” sign in support of the communities effected by the wildfires.
Dodgers first to clinch playoff spotSAN DIEGO (AP) — While
the Los Angeles Dodgers are regular participants in postseason baseball, there was something unusual about becoming the first team in the pandemic-shortened season to clinch a berth in the expanded playoffs.
“It’s different, I guess. I just found that out five minutes ago,” manager Dave Roberts said in his video news conference after the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-5 to take two of three in a matchup of the NL’s two top teams.
The Dodgers opened a 3 1/2-game lead in their quest for an eighth straight NL West title by beating the Padres for the second straight day. Dustin May threw 5 1/3 gutty innings out of the bull-pen, AJ Pollock and Chris Taylor homered and Will Smith drove in three runs.
“I’m celebrating by saying I’m proud of our guys and it was a great series,” said Roberts, who grew up in northern San Diego County and both played for and was a coach with the Padres be-fore getting the Dodgers’ job. “I think it caught us all by surprise because we were so focused on trying to win this series. I think word will travel once we get on the plane.”
San Diego, quieted by Dodg-ers pitching a second straight game even as it heads for its first
playoff berth since winning the division in 2006, has lost two straight for the first time since mid-August.
May confirmed that as part of COVID-19 protocols, MLB doesn’t want teams having wild clubhouse celebrations after clinching.
Asked if the Dodgers had a celebration, he said:
“No. We’re not allowed to.”But clinching a postseason
spot “is something you grind for for the whole season,” he said. “This season is different but we had to grind in the quarantine zone, so you’re still going to feel super excited.”
At 35-15, the Dodgers breezed into the expanded 16-team postseason field. Los Angeles is seeking its first World Series title since 1988, having lost in the Fall Classic under Roberts in 2017 and 2018.
Mookie Betts tied his career high with three stolen bases, had two hits and scored a run.
San Diego, quieted by Dodg-ers pitching a second straight game even as it heads for its first playoff berth since winning the division in 2006, has lost two straight for the first time since mid-August.
“Today we just got beat in almost all areas, facets of the game,” rookie manager Jayce Tingler said. “We didn’t play as
clean as we have been defen-sively. Their guys over there on the mound, they’ve done a good job pitching, especially the past two days. It was nice to scrap and crawl and fight back in it, but at the end of the day we got into too big a hole to overcome.”
May, who had been sched-uled to start before Roberts decided to go with a bullpen day, was the Dodgers’ third pitcher of the game. He went 5 1/3 innings and was in control until Jurickson Profar hom-ered to right field with two outs in the seventh to pull the Padres to 7-3. Mitch Moreland reached on an error by second baseman Gavin Lux opening the inning.
After Profar’s homer, May struck out Trent Grisham and blew off some steam by yelling a few profanities that could be heard around empty Petco Park. Grisham angered the Dodgers by briefly posing at the plate after homering off Clayton Kershaw in the Padres’ 7-2 win Monday night.
May allowed Manny Mach-ado’s solo homer with one out in the eighth, his 14th, and was lifted by Roberts.
Until the seventh, May had breezed through four innings by allowing only a single and a walk. He struck out six.
LOW: 55°Shown is tomorrow’s weather. Temperatures are tonight’s lows and tomorrow’s highs.
Shown are tomorrow’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
65° 54° 64° 52° 66° 52° 65° 50°
FOUR-DAY FORECAST FOR NORTH BEND
T-storms Rain Showers Snow Flurries Ice Cold Front Warm Front Stationary Front
-10s -0s 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s
Bandon
Port OrfordPowers
CoquilleCanyonville
Roseburg
Oakland
Oakridge
Sisters
Bend
Sunriver
La Pine
Crescent
BeaverMarsh
ToketeeFalls
Chiloquin
KlamathFallsAshland
Medford
Butte FallsGold Hill
GrantsPass
Eugene
HalseyYachats
CottageGrove
Springfi eld
ElktonReedsport
DrainFlorence
Gold Beach
NATIONAL FORECAST
REGIONAL FORECASTS
LOCAL ALMANAC
SUN AND MOON
TIDESOREGON CITIES
South Coast Curry Co. Coast Rogue Valley Willamette Valley Portland Area North Coast Central Oregon
NATIONAL EXTREMES YESTERDAY (for the 48 contiguous states)
Location High ft. Low ft. High ft. Low ft.
TEMPERATURE
PRECIPITATION
City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
City Hi/Lo Prec. Hi/Lo/W
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice, Prec.-precipitation.
NATIONAL CITIES
Coos Bay /North Bend
Clouds and sun, showers around
Times of clouds and sun
Partial sunshine Low clouds may break
National high: 114° at Ocotillo Wells, CA National low: 21° at Walden, CO
New First Full Last
Oct 9Oct 1Sep 23Sep 17
Bandon 12:58 a.m. 7.5 7:19 a.m. -0.5 1:49 a.m. 7.3 7:59 a.m. 0.0 1:33 p.m. 7.4 7:44 p.m. -0.1 2:10 p.m. 7.7 8:33 p.m. -0.4
Coos Bay 2:29 a.m. 7.8 8:45 a.m. -0.5 3:20 a.m. 7.6 9:25 a.m. 0.0 3:04 p.m. 7.8 9:10 p.m. -0.1 3:41 p.m. 8.0 9:59 p.m. -0.4
Charleston 1:03 a.m. 8.1 7:17 a.m. -0.5 1:54 a.m. 7.9 7:57 a.m. 0.0 1:38 p.m. 8.1 7:42 p.m. -0.1 2:15 p.m. 8.4 8:31 p.m. -0.5
Florence 1:47 a.m. 7.0 8:15 a.m. -0.4 2:38 a.m. 6.8 8:55 a.m. 0.0 2:22 p.m. 7.0 8:40 p.m. -0.1 2:59 p.m. 7.2 9:29 p.m. -0.4Port Orford 12:38 a.m. 7.8 6:59 a.m. -0.3 1:31 a.m. 7.5 7:39 a.m. 0.2 1:16 p.m. 7.7 7:23 p.m. 0.3 1:52 p.m. 7.9 8:13 p.m. -0.1Reedsport 2:11 a.m. 7.8 8:33 a.m. -0.1 3:03 a.m. 7.6 9:14 a.m. 0.3 2:42 p.m. 7.8 8:58 p.m. 0.1 3:22 p.m. 8.1 9:47 p.m. -0.2Half Moon Bay 1:12 a.m. 7.6 7:32 a.m. -0.4 2:04 a.m. 7.3 8:12 a.m. 0.1 1:46 p.m. 7.4 7:55 p.m. 0.0 2:24 p.m. 7.7 8:44 p.m. -0.4
Astoria 69/62 Trace 64/54/cBurns 86/38 0.00 77/37/pcBrookings 66/61 Trace 63/55/shCorvallis 78/48 0.00 64/52/shEugene 79/49 0.00 69/54/shKlamath Falls 85/36 0.00 65/38/pcLa Grande 83/43 0.00 78/51/pcMedford 82/51 0.00 83/50/shNewport 70/57 0.00 61/53/cPendleton 80/48 0.00 75/54/pcPortland 70/55 0.00 67/59/shRedmond 91/39 0.00 76/38/shRoseburg 81/54 0.00 78/50/shSalem 76/51 0.00 70/55/shThe Dalles 73/52 0.00 80/51/pc
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
TONIGHT FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY
High/low 73°/57°Normal high/low 65°/50°Record high 83° in 1991Record low 38° in 1987
Yesterday TraceYear to date 28.02"Last year to date 42.83"Normal year to date 38.17"
North Bend Wednesday
Sunset tonight 7:23 p.m.Sunrise tomorrow 7:00 a.m.Moonrise tomorrow 8:22 a.m.Moonset tomorrow 8:29 p.m.
Yesterday Fri. Friday Saturday
Fri. Sat. Fri. Sat. Fri. Sat.
Albuquerque 84/57/s 82/58/sAnchorage 59/47/c 55/44/cAtlanta 80/63/c 71/57/cAtlantic City 69/53/r 63/57/pcAustin 89/65/pc 85/60/sBaltimore 70/50/r 66/48/pcBillings 84/59/s 78/53/cBirmingham 80/63/pc 76/60/cBoise 82/53/s 73/50/pcBoston 60/48/pc 60/47/sBuffalo 61/41/pc 60/40/pcBurlington, VT 60/38/s 56/37/sCaribou, ME 58/33/pc 55/31/pcCasper 87/54/pc 83/48/tCharleston, SC 82/66/t 71/60/cCharleston, WV 70/45/c 68/44/pcCharlotte, NC 78/59/c 68/53/cCheyenne 81/54/s 83/53/cChicago 63/47/pc 64/49/sCincinnati 68/47/s 67/46/sCleveland 61/45/pc 61/44/sColorado Spgs 83/55/pc 86/55/pcColumbus, OH 67/43/s 65/44/sConcord, NH 63/34/pc 62/34/sDallas 85/62/pc 82/58/sDayton 67/42/s 66/43/sDaytona Beach 90/75/t 86/75/tDenver 88/60/pc 90/57/pcDes Moines 68/50/s 71/50/pcDetroit 62/42/pc 61/45/sEl Paso 86/61/s 85/62/sFairbanks 55/41/c 51/37/r
Fargo 63/46/s 71/58/pcFlagstaff 79/47/pc 77/43/sFresno 81/59/pc 83/59/sGreen Bay 60/37/s 62/43/pcHartford, CT 63/41/pc 64/39/sHelena 87/55/s 65/49/shHonolulu 88/76/s 89/76/sHouston 90/67/pc 87/65/sIndianapolis 67/45/s 67/46/sKansas City 72/51/pc 73/52/sKey West 90/82/pc 89/82/pcLas Vegas 101/77/pc 100/74/pcLexington 69/46/pc 67/46/sLittle Rock 79/56/pc 77/55/sLos Angeles 91/69/pc 88/63/pcLouisville 72/50/s 69/49/sMadison 60/41/s 62/43/pcMemphis 78/57/pc 76/56/sMiami 91/78/pc 90/77/shMilwaukee 58/48/pc 61/51/sMinneapolis 63/47/s 67/52/sMissoula 85/51/s 63/47/tNashville 75/53/pc 73/52/sNew Orleans 83/73/pc 80/72/cNew York City 66/50/r 64/48/sNorfolk, VA 74/63/r 68/64/pcOklahoma City 80/55/s 80/54/sOlympia, WA 65/55/sh 67/52/pcOmaha 72/54/pc 76/56/pcOrlando 90/75/t 89/75/tPhiladelphia 69/48/r 65/50/sPhoenix 106/81/s 105/78/s
Pittsburgh 66/39/pc 62/41/sPocatello 87/53/pc 68/42/tPortland, ME 64/42/pc 62/41/sProvidence 62/45/pc 63/45/sRaleigh 72/54/r 67/51/cRapid City 78/50/pc 86/53/pcRedding 80/56/pc 87/59/sReno 78/44/pc 77/47/sRichmond, VA 70/52/r 67/52/pcSacramento 81/57/s 84/56/sSt. Louis 73/49/s 71/51/sSalt Lake City 91/63/pc 76/54/tSan Angelo 85/59/pc 84/53/pcSan Diego 84/67/pc 81/67/pcSan Francisco 73/60/pc 72/57/pcSan Jose 75/60/pc 75/57/sSanta Fe 82/49/s 81/48/sSeattle 65/57/sh 66/57/pcSioux Falls 68/53/pc 78/59/pcSpokane 77/53/pc 69/50/cSpringfi eld, IL 69/43/pc 68/44/sSpringfi eld, MA 62/39/pc 62/37/sSyracuse 61/36/s 59/36/sTampa 87/76/t 89/75/tToledo 65/41/s 63/44/sTrenton 68/45/r 63/45/sTucson 99/73/s 98/71/sTulsa 81/56/s 80/55/sWashington, DC 70/51/r 66/52/pcW. Palm Beach 92/77/sh 90/77/tWichita 81/55/s 80/56/pcWilmington, DE 69/48/r 65/47/s
Cloudy, showers around late
55/65
55/64
57/6454/69
55/6758/80
57/78
57/77
55/69
51/75
50/72
48/72
48/73
46/72
46/72
51/72
47/62
44/6553/7756/83
53/7755/80
58/80
56/69
57/6754/60
56/75
57/75
57/67
56/7355/62
57/63
56/66
Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri.
57° 63° 57° 63° 56° 83° 56° 69° 61° 67° 55° 64° 49° 76°
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NCAA basketball set to open day before ThanksgivingERIC OLSONAssociated Press
The NCAA men’s and wom-en’s basketball season will begin Nov. 25, the day before Thanks-giving.
The Division I Council voted Wednesday to push the start date back from the originally sched-uled Nov. 10 as one of several precautions against the spread of coronavirus.
The later start date coincides with the decision most schools made to send students home from Thanksgiving until January out of concern about a potential late-fall and early-winter flareup of COVID-19. Closed campuses could serve as a quasi bubble for players and provide a window
for nonconference games.“The fact our campuses will
be clearing out, it will be pos-sible to just further control the exposures, and the 25th gives us that opportunity,” said Division I Council chair Grace Calhoun, the athletic director at Penn.
The men’s and women’s bas-ketball oversight committees had jointly recommended a start date of Nov. 21, a Saturday. Calhoun said the council wanted to avoid a weekend start date because of potential overlaps of basketball and football games on campuses.
The maximum number of regular-season games has been reduced from 31 to 27.
“The rationale was that during the season teams tend to play an average of two games a week, so
the fact we’re shortening the sea-son by two weeks necessitated the reduction in games so we’re not being counterproductive and trying to jam more in a shortened season,” Calhoun said.
The minimum number of games for consideration for the NCAA Tournament was cut from 25 to 13. Calhoun said the low minimum is an acknowledge-ment that schools probably will experience different levels of COVID-19 cases and have to alter schedules.
“We fully anticipate there are going to be some issues as we go through the season, much like we’ve seen in football, so we want there to be flexibility for institutions to put together seasons,” she said.
Teams can start preseason practices Oct. 14. Beginning Monday, teams will be allowed to participate in strength and conditioning and sport-related meetings and skill instruction for up to 12 hours a week, with an eight-hour limit on skill instruc-tion.
No scrimmages against other teams or exhibitions are allowed. It also was recommended each team play a minimum of four nonconference games.
The council is scheduled to meet again Oct. 13-14 and could delay the start date and change other pieces of the basketball framework if circumstances sur-rounding the virus warrant.
The council also voted to extend the recruiting dead
period for all sports until Jan. 1. In-person recruiting is prohibited during a dead period, though phone calls and other correspon-dence are allowed.
Also approved was civic engagement legislation. Prac-ticing, competing and other countable athletically related activities will be prohibited on the Tuesday after the first Mon-day of November each year, including this year’s Election Day on Nov. 3.
The Division I Student-Ath-lete Advisory Committee pro-posed the legislation to provide a day each year dedicated to increasing opportunities for ath-letes to participate in activities such as voting or community service.
U.S. Open: Tough test during tough timeJIM LITKEAssociated Press
When golfers fall asleep imagining how they’d play this course or that, they’re almost never dreaming about Winged Foot. That includes Tiger Woods. The place is a nightmare for him, too.
Then again, if the aim is to stage the toughest test in golf, in the midst of a pan-demic no less, where else would you plant the flag-stick? Only two players have finished under par in the five U.S. Opens contested over the century-old design and no one on the ground in Mamaroneck, New York, this week, including the favorites, expects to make a serious dent in that legacy. Just the opposite.
“The viewers at home are going to see some pretty bizarre stuff and probably a lot of putts and chips that make us look pretty bad,” Justin Thomas said.
“If you’re into that stuff,” he added, “then you’re going to like this week.”
Which prompted at least one enterprising fan on Twit-ter to retort: “Why would I want to watch bad golf when I can do that to myself?”
A fair enough question, but one which the U.S. Golf Association rarely bothers to ask itself. The USGA selects the venues for the national champi-onships and sets them up, sometimes diabolically, happy to let the game’s three other major champi-onships and nearly every week out on tour offer what amounts to a skeet-shoot.
Birdies have been plenti-ful since golf resumed play back in June. Six players have won with scores of 20 under par or better, includ-ing an eye-popping, 30-un-der-par win by Dustin Johnson, the favorite at tee-off time, at the North-ern Trust last month. The low scores could be the result of golfers using the extra time off to practice or just decompress, or maybe even a lack of fans apply-ing pressure on the leader coming down the stretch.
Whatever the reason, don’t expect a lot of red on the board, or conversely, too much complaining by the players this week. It was at Winged Foot, not coinci-dentally, where the USGA’s rallying cry was made by the late Sandy Tatum, its president at the time, after a
particularly brutal opening round in 1974.
“We’re not here to hu-miliate the best players,” he said. “We’re simply trying to identify who they are.”
Along with Johnson and Thomas, several other guys on impressive runs are being touted by the bookies, few gaining more buzz than Jon Rahm. The Spaniard by way of Arizona State has already notched the two toughest tournaments this year — the Memorial at Muirfield Village and the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, holding off loaded fields in both — and is poised for his major breakthrough.
With tight fairways, thick rough, slick greens and five closing par-4s of 425 yards and better, Winged Foot places a premium on driving accuracy, distance control with the irons and especially the short game. That could bring young Collin Morikawa, the recently crowned PGA Championship winner, and just-turned-40 Aussie Adam Scott into the mix.
Most of the top 70-ranked players in the world will be on hand, including three-time winner Woods,
defending champion Gary Woodland and eight other U.S. Open winners. Missing is Brooks Koepka, who won back-to-back in 2017-18, but will sit this one out due to an injury.
Woods, seeking his 16th major, claimed the 2000 U.S. title at Pebble Beach with a performance that ranks among the greatest four days of golf ever played. Now 44 and day-to-day because of a surgically repaired back, he might have trouble just hanging on into the weekend. When the 1997 PGA Championship was played at Winged Foot, Woods finished T29. In the previous U.S. Open there, in 2006, weeks after the death of his father, Earl, he missed the cut.
Phil Mickelson, the other aging superstar, has an even more tortured history at Winged Foot. Having just turned 50 and dominated in his first Champions Tour start, he’s spent much of the week recounting his improbable meltdown in 2006, one of a half-dozen runner-up fin-ishes he’s collected chasing the one major champion-ship that has eluded him.
Roglic extends lead in Tour de France
MERIBEL, France (AP) — Colombian rider Miguel Angel Lopez won the toughest mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France, while race leader Primož Roglic added a few crucial seconds to his advantage over rival Tadej Pogacar.
The much-vaunted 17th stage saw Roglic finishing 15 seconds behind Lopez in second place, while Pogacar trudged over the line 30 seconds behind Lopez in third.
But with another tough day of climbing to come on Thursday, Roglic re-mained wary of the threat posed by his Slovenian countryman — although back home people may not care which of the two stands atop the podium when the race finishes in Paris on Sunday.
“I don’t think the job is done. Am I happy with the gap I have over Po-gacar? Well… It’s never enough. When you have something, you always want more,” he said. “These last days I’ve seen so many Slovenian
flags on the roadside, all day long. This always gives you some extra energy, it is such an unique feeling. I hope they are proud of us back in Slovenia.”
The 170-kilometer (105.4-mile) trek’s final ascent to the Méribel ski station was the high point of this year’s race at 2,304 meters, winding up a Loze pass never before ridden and with tortuous gradients of 24%.
“I felt really good on the climb, but you can’t compare these last 4-5K to anything else. I’m glad this stage is behind us,” said Roglic, who praised his American teammate Sepp Kuss for his efforts in helping him up the hardest parts. “On this climb, every meter counts. Having his help was really good.”
Lopez timed his attack perfectly with just under 3 kilometers to go while Roglic accelerated away from Pogacar, who clawed some of the gap back but may have bid farewell to his chances of winning the Tour.